Examine two different perspectives of American affluence by notable intellectuals of the period. The first is by Clark Kerr, Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. And the second is by sociologist C. Wright Mills.
Clark Kerr, “Freedom in Industrial Society” (1960), in Foner, Voices of Freedom, 245-249.
C. Wright Mills, “On ‘Cheerful Robots'” (1959), in Foner, Voices of Freedom, 255-257.
Kerr argued that in America industrial society and individual freedom were compatible, but that this new society also demanded a new consensus about the ideas and values central to the functioning of that society. Although work in industrial society requires a good deal of discipline and limits to an individual’s freedom, this is compensated for by the expansion of leisure activities and consumerism outside of work which provides the economic conditions for that freedom in industrial society. Furthermore, industrial society requires a necessary consensus beyond ideological or political disagreement. This consensus concerns a common set of ideas, beliefs, and value judgments, articulated by educated intellectuals, and integrated throughout the whole of American industrial society, which cannot function with that consensus.
Mills, on the other hand, argued that the Cold War and industrial society in America in the 1950s created the conditions for a new sense of alienation along with the demands of conformity and normalization. Work had become monotonous and repetitive. Suburban life was homogeneous and hollow. Consumerism created the endless cycles of desire and its temporary satiation. And massive bureaucracies ruled by “power elites”—corporate executives, politicians, scientists, and military leaders—alienated individuals from their freedom. Technological society could create a new conformism without recourse to forms of political oppression characteristic of totalitarian societies. Social control could be achieved on a wide scale through the means of proper training and conditioning, or could produce what Mills called “cheerful robots”: a society comprised of predictable human automatons, lacking freedom and rational thought.
Your task is to compare and contrast these two sources and explain how their very different assessments of America in the 1950s reflects the new circumstances of technological society. You do not necessarily have to take a side in their debate, or agree or disagree with one side or the either. A very good paper, for instance, will formulate an interpretation that shows how this debate reflects the broader place of America within the historical context of the Cold War and American consumerism in the 1950s.
Here are some questions to help you think about the two sources (you don’t necessarily have to answer these questions in your paper)
How does the concept of freedom function differently in Kerr and Mills? Are there any points of agreement between the two about freedom?
How do the circumstances of America’s involvement in the Cold War create the conditions upon which this new technological society functions?
How does the America Kerr and Mills describe in the 1950s differ from the America of the 1930s during the Great Depression?
In what sense, if at all, might the descriptions or prescriptions of Kerr and Mills still apply to American technological society today, in the 2020s?
For the paper it is absolutely imperative that you cite your sources using one of the acceptable academic citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), and that the citations appear correctly in the body of your paper. If you fail to submit a paper with citations you will fail the assignment. You must cite your sources.
The paper must include the following:
A descriptive title.
A thesis statement and an argument. Do not simply summarize or describe the sources. Provide an analysis of the meaning and significance of the texts. In other words, form an interpretation of the texts.
Provide evidence from the text to support your thesis statement. The evidence must come from the text itself.
Use in-text citations when quoting or paraphrasing a source.
Include a bibliography at the end of your paper.
750-1250 words (a minimum of 3 full pages, roughly, 3-5 pages).
10 or 12-point readable font, double-spaced, with 1” margins
